Keith Haring Created These Striking Subway Drawings While Waiting for Trains on His Way to Work

The artist used white chalk to draw on blank advertising panels inside subway stations. Now, 31 surviving examples of these works have sold at auction for more than $9 million


Julia Binswanger
Daily Correspondent
November 27, 2024 11:36 a.m.



Sotheby's recent Keith Haring exhibition, "Art in Transit," displayed the 31 artworks in an immersive recreation of the New York subway. Sotheby’s


The New York subway system was one of Keith Haring’s most beloved and well-worn canvases. Between 1980 and 1985, the iconic street artist created thousands of works: He would take white chalk and draw on blank panels meant for advertisements on station walls.

“I remember noticing a panel in the Times Square station and immediately going aboveground and buying chalk,” Haring once said, per Sotheby’s. “After the first drawing, things just fell into place. I began drawing on the subways as a hobby on my way to work. I had to ride the subways often and would do a drawing while waiting for a train.”

This month, 31 of Haring’s subway drawings sold at a Sotheby’s auction for a collective $9.2 million. The artist was known for his bold, colorful works addressing political and social issues, and the imaginative chalk drawings feature subjects that range from barking dogs to flying saucers to pyramids.

“Though seemingly cartoony, Haring’s work commented on important social events that contemporary New Yorkers felt were being ignored or misrepresented by politicians and the media,” writes Artnet’s Tim Brinkhof.



Larry Warsh collected the 31 images after seeing them on the subway in the 1980s. Sotheby’s

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/keith-haring-created-these-striking-subway-drawings-while-waiting-for-trains-on-his-way-to-work-180985542/